Intuitive Music

The first time Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman met was at a gig at Hull University on Wednesday, December the 9th, 1970. Wakeman’s folk rock band The Strawbs was supporting Yes and they definitely spotted each other. On one side, Yes were always looking for a keyboardist in the likes of Keith Emerson who could provide to the band a wider range of synthesizer and orchestral sounds and a classical approach. Anderson remembers Wakeman as “the darling of the universities and colleges, the man to see. Rick was very talented and individual in his style”.On the other side, Rick Wakeman was looking for an opportunity to join a band more interested in rock and experimentation. As he remembers in his autho-biography “I remember staying to hear their set and being intrigued by their sound, which was totally different from anything else at the time. They also looked different, almost wrong in fact.” Wakeman remembers his first impression on Anderson’s personal voice “Most bands at the time had lead singers who were tall and had deep throaty voices. Jon Anderson was diminutive and had a pure adult falsetto.”

In August 1971, Yes decided to fire their keyboardist Tony Kaye after he missed the first studio sessions for “The Yes Album” when he stayed longer in New York, at the end of the band’s US tour, apparently because he was in a hotel room with Deborah Harry. That same month, Rick Wakeman was invited by Yes manager Brian Lane to see the band rehearse at London’s Shepherd’s Market. The rehearsal had been prepared so carefully to impress the keyboardist that the very same day he decided to join and as a consequence he had to refuse the proposal from David Bowie to join his Spiders from Mars band for the forthcoming Ziggy Stardust tour.

Although Rick Wakeman’s presence completely changed the spectrum of Yes sound, the relationship between him and Jon Anderson was not easy at first as he remembered: “When you’ve got four people who’ve kind of growing up together, or at least been working together for a while, and they’ve started to create something their own way… I couldn’t understand Jon at all, and he couldn’t understand me.” During his early stay in Yes, Wakeman developed a close relationship with drummer Bill Bruford. When Bruford decided to leave Yes to join King Crimson right after the end of the recording sessions for the legendary album “Close to the Edge”, Wakeman was devastated. It was the beginning of a crack that became wider between him and the band in the forthcoming times.

The recording of the band’s double album “Tales from Topographic Oceans” in 1973 confirmed how isolated Rick felt from the rest of the band. The album was originally conceived and written by Jon Anderson and Steve Howe at the hotel rooms during their former tour. Wakeman used to complain about his handicap for writting music with the band: while the rest of the band where locked into the room with acoustic guitars he couldn’t go around with a piano. He even had a portable electric keyboard custom made for the purpose. When Yes got into the new conceptual album he was completely out the picture. To add more fuel to the fire, the rest of the band were having a healthy and strictly vegetarian lifestyle while he was into steaks and the loads of alcohol that he later regretted. During the recordings of “Tales from Topographic Oceans” at London’s Morgan Studios, Wakeman had more fun helping out Black Sabbath with the recording of “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” than with his own band. Jon Anderson and the rest of the band got extremely disappointed about Rick’s lack of integration in the band. Rick described the album as “a woman’s padded bra: the cover looks good, the outside looks good; it’s all the right ingredients, but when you peel off the padding there’s not a lot there”.

Despite of his disagreement, “Tales from Topographic Oceans” still remains as one of the favorite works for the band’s fans and Wakeman created some of the most innovative synthesis sounds and atmospheres in rock music. However, the critics agreed with Wakeman and took the album to pieces. This provoked even more acrimony between Rick and the band. During the forthcoming USA tour he forced the band two drop “The Remembering”, one of the fourth long pieces from the album, from the show. The European tour was a real nightmare for him. He was accused of eating chili and tandoori during the shows as statement of his boredom. He called a meeting to the band on the first day of the tour to announce he wanted to leave. He agreed to stay until the end of the tour but it ended up with the Mellotrons passing away, Rick breaking his leg and the last Italy gigs being cancelled. Jon Anderson admitted later that he push him over the edge to get one of the Minimoog solos right onstage: “I kept pushing him all the way through the tour to the point where he said ‘You’ve driving me crazy. I’ve had enough, I’m leaving’”.

Rick Wakeman quit Yes on his 25th birthday, on 18th May 1974, to pursue his successful career as a solo artist. On the 27th of July that same year, Rick Wakeman performed his new work “Journey To The Centre of the Earth” featuring the New World Symphony Orchestra and the English Chamber Choir at London’s Crystal Palace Bowl. That day, he felt extremely sick and the next day after the show while he was stricken by a heart attack while being interviewed at home by Melody Maker magazine. During his stay at Wexham Park Hospital for four weeks, something happened that would change his friendship with Jon Anderson for the rest of their lives when he got an unexpected visit from the singer. Anderson apologized for the hard times and offered him to come back to Yes, which Rick refused. But just for a while because in November 1976 he was called back to join the band in Montreux Switzerland for the recordings of The new Yes album “Going For The One”, and he did. From my point of view there was never so much musical unity in Yes like in this album and Rick Wakeman showed his best side with the band.

During the following years, the relationship between Jon and Rick got closer and they wrote their first song together “Madrigal” for the album “Tormato” in 1978. They also recorded and improvised together at Veavy’s St. Martin’s church playing Irish harp and the master organ. During this period, both of them started to feel apart from the rest of the band. This situation culminated during the fruitless recording sessions at Paris in November 1979 when they presented the material that they had wrote together and was turned down by the rest of the band. Rick Wakeman said in his biography: “One evening Jon and I sat in a little café opposite the studio, drinking Calvados after Calvados, trying to come up with a solution in the situation we found ourselves in. Finally, Jon looked at me and spoke with tears in the eyes. ‘This isn’t Yes you know. This isn’t how is meant to be. It’s time for me to leave’”. Both of them quit the band. It was the second time Wakeman left Yes, but the first that Anderson did, which meant a big crisis for the band. Soon later, Jon Anderson did a guest appearance on the keyboardist’s album “1984″.

After the departure of Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman from Yes, they were replaced by Trevor Horn and Geoff Downess from The Buggles to record the album “Drama”. In 1983, Jon Anderson was invited to collaborate in the recordings of the band’s new album “90125″ and he rejoined the band for a period of four commercially successful years. Five years later, he felt once more the spirit of Yes was gone and he decided to regroup his old mates Rick Wakeman, Steve Howe and Bill Bruford for a more creative version of Yes. During this project, Anderson and Wakeman wrote together one of their most beautiful pieces “The Meeting”, a song where Jon Anderson’s spiritual world met Rick Wakeman’s Christian beliefs. Later, both bands Yes and ABWH joined forces in a 8 members lineup and toured the world in a round stage. Later, Rick Wakeman was out of the Yes family for another five years. In 1997, Anderson and Wakeman worked together again in Yes for the two volume albums “Key to Ascension” with a move to the band’s original progressive rock roots. After this experience, Wakeman decided to quit the band again. He told me personally in 1999: “I cannot go round the theaters. For me it’s like Real Madrid playing football in the park”. In the 00’s Yes returned to it’s classic lineup with Wakeman onboard to tour the world.

Now, with Yes having an hiatus, Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman are together on a UK tour for the very first time. This is an unique opportunity to see two of the most talented and gifted talents from British progressive rock music hand to hand. In July this year, Rick Wakeman performed his album “Return to the Center of the Earth” at Quebec City, featuring Jon Anderson on the vocal parts. The keyboardist claimed recently that this has been the best live show from his entire career.

Jon Anderson and Rick wakeman started their tour last 7th of October at Edinburgh and will be playing until the 1st of November in Sheffield. See more dates at Jon Anderson’s web site.